‘DR. DEATH’ TEAM ON POST-PANDEMIC LAUNCH OF TRUE CRIME THRILLER: “THERE ARE A LOT OF GOOD DOCTORS”
First Published on Hollywoodreporter.com
SHOWRUNNER PATRICK MACMANUS AND STAR JOSHUA JACKSON TALK TO THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER ABOUT THE ACTOR REPLACING JAMIE DORNAN IN THE PEACOCK LIMITED SERIES, WITH FELLOW CAST MEMBERS CHRISTIAN SLATER AND ANNASOPHIA ROBB REVEALING, AHEAD OF THE LIMITED SERIES' TRIBECA FESTIVAL PREMIERE, HOW THEY PREPARED TO PLAY THEIR REAL-LIFE CHARACTERS.
Peacock’s true-crime thriller Dr. Death might seem somewhat ill-timed, hitting the streamer at the tail end of a pandemic in which the medical community has been celebrated for treating the flood of patients who came down with COVID-19, not to mention the scientists who developed the vaccines helping people return to normal.
But the team behind the limited series, based on the hit Wondery podcast of the same name, stresses that their show is based on a specific, true story, that of Dr. Christopher Duntsch (Joshua Jackson) a rising neurosurgeon in the Dallas medical community whose patients ended up seriously injured or dead. And, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the Tribeca Festival, they argue that it’s the series’ storyline about the other doctors, played by Christian Slater and Alec Baldwin, who worked to stop Duntsch that speaks to this time in which physicians have been hailed as heroes.